Fill in the Blank

Sailing has its own language. It’s a language I don’t know. Since I’ve been on this boat I’ve barely been able to understand a thing people say to me. Actually, that’s not entirely true; I understand pretty much everything except the most important words.

Below is a an example of an instruction I might get on the boat. The blanks represent all the words I don’t know or understand. I thought I’d make this into a mad libs to make things a little more interactive.

How to play:

1. Grab a friend, relative or stranger nearby and ask them to say a word for each of the blank spaces. It should be the type of word indicated in the bracket.

2.Copy and paste the passage and fill in the blanks with the words they have given you.

3. Read the story and laugh at its ridiculousness.

4. Send me a copy of the story for my own amusement.

“I’m going to show you how to _________ (verb) the _________ (noun). Can you pass me the __________ (adjective) ____________ (noun)? It’s next to the ___________ (noun, part of a car). No, not that! That’s a _________ (noun). It’s for ___________ (verb) the ___________ (noun, body part) of the boat. That won’t do us any good when we’re trying to fix the___________ (type of tree) ___________ (noun).” ___________ (proper noun, male name) sighs. He is getting impatient.

“OK. You know where the ___________ (noun, plural) are? In the drawer with the ___________ (number) by ___________ (number)’s? Yep, that’s them. Now get me a ___________ (proper noun) screwdriver and tie a ___________ (noun, animal) knot to attach the ___________ (noun) to the ___________ (adjective) rope.” More sighing.” Never mind. Just hold it steady for me.”